Alex Kumi 

Tests begin as UK braces for bird flu

The UK is braced for a possible bird flu outbreak, prompting a flurry of tests on dead wild birds from around the country, after it was confirmed that a duck in France had the deadly H5N1 strain.
  
  


The UK is braced for a possible bird flu outbreak, prompting a flurry of tests on dead wild birds from around the country, after it was confirmed that a duck in France had the deadly H5N1 strain.

Random samples of birds are being tested and people have been asked to report unexplained deaths of wild birds, particularly geese, ducks and swans.

The government has said the discovery that the bird found near Lyon in southern France had died of the lethal strain of the virus made it "more likely" that the disease would reach the UK.

France is the seventh European Union country to confirm it had been hit by the disease, which can be passed to humans from direct contact with infected birds or faeces and has claimed 91 lives since 2003.

A spokesman for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural affairs said: "We have asked people to contact us and there have been nine swans tested in the last week or two. All proved negative.

"The Veterinary Laboratories Agency Laboratory in Weybridge is in the middle of a huge amount of samples form other parts of Europe. Samples are getting sent from this country as well."

Ornithological experts have said unusually cold weather in mainland Europe had resulted in wild birds infected with H5N1 heading towards Britain in search of food and water.

The spread of the lethal strain has heightened fears that the disease could mutate into a form which is easily communicable from person to person and lead to a human flu pandemic.

Animal health minister Ben Bradshaw attempted to allay fears by stressing that it is not inevitable that the disease would spread to this country. He said early identification of any outbreak is paramount.

Britain had had a contingency plan in place for three-and-a-half years and was well prepared. "We are appealing to poultry keepers to be ready to house their birds should such an order be issued, which would happen if there were there an outbreak to be found in this country."

John Oxford, professor of virology at Barts hospital, London, said the likelihood of a human avian flu pandemic is "high and within a span of, say, 18 months".

 

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